The Bourgeois Empire (PDF)

Everything should stay as it is, or you will lose everything, and thats how it is for everyone.

Today was a day for getting along, liver-healing, a cocktail party and a faster wireless connection that tolerates renovated turn-of-the-century walls and allows Candy Cane (or Coconut?) to become a part of your afternoon en suite bathroom caucus. Life is not good, but it feels good, on occasion, baby, is what you might type. — from The Bourgeois Empire

Paranoia, pills, and torrent after torrent of glorious porn. A marriage devoid of both sex and emotion. A broken hand, a perpetually surreal home reno, a dying dog.

For Jules, a successful professional with a wife and kids, all of this would be manageable — if it wasnt for Charlie. Because fifteen-year-old girls, dear reader, are something different entirely.

Jules is obsessed with a teenager — hes falling head over heels and attempting to arrest the march of time. He's a man, dammit — a mans man, a guys guy — and thats all that matters.

The Bourgeois Empire, Evie Christie's first novel, is a Nabokovian fever dream, an encyclopedic guide to mortal sin, and a thoroughly contemporary reimagining of Billy Wilders classic film The Lost Weekend. And yes, of course, its a love story too.